Emergency imposed on India by former PM Indira Gandhi after the Allahabad High Court set aside her re-election to the Lok Sabha in 1971 on the grounds of electoral malpractices evokes bad memories. For all the fundamental rights of the citizens were suspended, thousands along with politicians were arrested without trial and the media was subjected to unprecedented gagging. 40 years after the historic event we still remember emergency for the trauma it caused to one and all.
Here’s an interactive timeline of the events.
But, what would have happened had Indira Gandhi not imposed the Emergency?
In an article published in a news daily, senior Journalist Kuldeep Nayar writes that if Indira Gandhi had desisted from imposing Emergency the demands for her resignation following the Allahabad HC judgement would have become louder. The press would have become critical. But all that would have come to a stop a few weeks later when the Supreme Court gave her the “stay” and all owed her to continue as prime minister but denying her the right to exercise her vote till the disposal of the case. The jurist Nani Palkhivala, who returned the brief after the imposition of Emergency, would have fought her case and probably got the HC judgement annulled.
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Justice Shah has said in his report: “There is no reason to think that if the democratic conventions were followed, the whole political upsurge would in the normal course have not subsided.” But in her anxiety to continue in power, Mrs Gandhi brought about instead a situation which directly contributed to her continuance in power and also generated forces which sacrificed the interests of many to serve the ambitions of a few, Nayar writes.
Nonetheless, had the Emergency not been imposed, the fallibility of the press, public servants and the judiciary would not have been proved. Newspapermen, in the words of L.K. Advani, began to crawl when they were asked to bend. The anxiety to survive at any cost became the key concern of public servants, Nayar writes.
“The imposition of the Emergency exposed the timidity of Indian society once again. Its moral hypocrisy was reinforced. There was no awareness of what was wrong, nor was there a desire to act according to what was right. The dividing line between right and wrong, moral and immoral, ceased to exist. And the nation is still paying for it,” the senior Journalist opines.
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